Working to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline

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Recently, Enbridge asked the National Energy Board (NEB) and the federal cabinet for a three-year extension for its Northern Gateway pipelines and tankers project. With Northern Gateway’s permits set to expire at the end of this year because it has missed mandatory deadlines, the company is making a last-ditch attempt to keep the project alive.

Right now, we have a chance to put an end to Northern Gateway once and for all.

The NEB is currently reviewing Enbridge’s application for an extension, and is seeking public input untilJune 27, 2016 on whether or not to grant the request. Instruction for writing your letter are below.

Writing your letter

The NEB is not accepting form letters of any kind, so please adapt the following arguments based on your concerns, interests and expertise on the Northern Gateway proposal:

Remind the NEB that the federal government has committed to implement a north coast oil tanker ban, which would render Enbridge’s project impossible.

In mandate letters issued to the Minister of Transportation, Marc Garneau and the Ministry of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau requested they implement a legislated oil tanker ban on B.C.’s north coast.

Several statements by the Prime Minister, his office, and Ministers Garneau, McKenna, and Tootoo back this up.

Carrying out the Prime Minister’s orders means Northern Gateway can’t be built because the whole proposal hinges on sailing hundreds of foreign supertankers into the north coast port of Kitimat to load up with diluted bitumen.

The fact the Government of Canada intends to formalize an oil tanker ban — and that it does so with the support of First Nations, municipalities, scientists, the Province of B.C. and its citizens — should be a major factor in the NEB rejecting Enbridge Northern Gateway’s permit extension request.

Mention other recent developments that make Northern Gateway a bad idea

The NEB says it will only consider “new information”, i.e. stuff that has happened since the last federal government approved the project in June 2013. For example, the landmark study by the National Academy of Sciences on the fate and behaviour of diluted bitumen once it spills. Spoiler alert: it sinks. Or the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, adopted by the new Canadian government in Paris last fall. That kind of thing.

Sign off with your name and hometown

It never hurts to remind them that the people who have to live with the consequences of the proposal (i.e. British Columbians) really, really don’t want it built.

Ready? Here’s where to send your letter

If you’re sending a paper letter by snail mail, make sure it gets to Calgary by June 27, 2016. The address is:

Download and print this sign, take a photo of yourself holding the sign (or your family, coworkers, friends etc. – be creative!) and then post the photo to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #UnitedAgainstEnbridge